The present invention is directed to the display of information on one or more computer display devices, and more particularly to the updating of displayed information upon display device reconfiguration.
In the modern computing environment, the user is presented with a variety of choices for displaying information processed within the computer. Display devices come in a wide choice of sizes, and many offer different display modes with varying resolutions. If the user switches from one display device to another, it may be necessary to update the displayed information to accommodate the size and/or characteristics of the new device. Similarly, for display devices that are capable of operating in multiple modes, an update may be required when switching from one mode to another. For example, in one mode the device may provide a display that is 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high, and in another mode the width of the display might be 1,024 pixels and its height can be 768 pixels.
Whenever a change in display configuration occurs, the elements of the display might be placed at different locations relative to the overall shape of the display. These changes are particularly noticeable in graphical interfaces which employ a desktop metaphor to identify objects and applications for the user. In graphical interfaces which employ this type of metaphor, files, application programs and other objects are represented as icons that can be placed on the desktop by the user. A typical user may prefer to group the icons on the desktop in a manner which identifies their relationship to one another. For example, utility applications may be placed in one area of the desktop, files in another, and other application programs in a third area. If the display changes, the icons may appear in different portions of the overall display. For example, an icon located at the right edge of a 640 pixel wide display screen would be positioned near the center of the screen if the display is switched to a width of 1,024 pixels. Conversely, an icon on the right edge of a display having a width of 1,024 pixels would be positioned off the display if the display is changed to the 640 pixel mode. In the past, when the size of a display changed, icons that would otherwise be positioned off the display would instead be relocated to default positions on the new display. For example, these icons might be located along the right edge of the display, beginning at the top right corner.
Another change in configuration can occur when a one of plural display devices, already configured as part of the display space, is moved relative to the other display device(s). As in the previous reconfiguration examples, it may also be desirable in these situations to relocate desktop objects to the moved display device so that the original visual relationship between objects on this device is preserved. A common example of this type of reconfiguration occurs when a user elevates one device, for example a 13-inch monitor, relative to another, for example a 21-inch monitor, so that the cursor moves across these two monitors in a straight line. This reconfiguration situation is pictorially illustrated in FIG. 1. Therein, an original display space configuration is shown to the left of the arrow wherein a larger monitor A is abutted on a right side thereof by a smaller monitor B. The smaller monitor B has, for example, an icon 10 drawn in the lower right hand portion thereof. If a user reconfigures this display space in the manner illustrated to the right of the arrow in FIG. 1, i.e., by elevating monitor B, then it would be desirable to relocate icon 10 from its old position (as shown by the dotted outline of icon 10) to a same relative position on the moved monitor B (shown by the solid outline of icon 10). Absent any relocation, icon 10 would seem to disappear from the user's desktop.